Disadvantages of Hemp Oil

Almost all hemp oil products in the market offer you advantages for cosmetic and cooking purpose. This vegetable oil indeed does plenty of good things, but you need to be aware of its limitations also.

This substance can be considered addictive. Other disadvantages of hemp oil are as follows.

1. Short Shelf Life

When stored improperly, hemp oil quickly deteriorated into a useless liquid. All essential oils naturally need to be properly stored, but hemp oil is one of the worst types among other similar vegetable oils. All essential oils containing essential fatty acids have short lives, especially when extracted without using solvent. However, you need to be more careful with hemp. Exposures to light and oxygen may also cause the hemp oil to go rancid easily.

Hemp oil has to be stored in dark location and sealed tightly to prevent oxygen from penetrating the container or bottle. Unrefined hemp oil should be frozen or refrigerated as well.

2. Strong Taste

Hemp oil commonly has strong nutty flavor, but it actually depends of the manufacturing processes. Products from different brands have different taste and smell as well. Physically, this oil has deep green color simply because of its high concentration of chlorophyll. When used as an ingredient for foods, hemp oil delivers its distinguishable taste and smell to the foods.

To accommodate the smell, some products also use fragrance in the mixture especially for cosmetic purpose. You should be very careful with other chemicals mixed with the oil. Read the labels and list of ingredients to avoid allergic reactions.

3. Cannot be used for Frying

Every vegetable oil has a boiling point. If processed over its boiling point, the chemical structure will be altered and the oil becomes generally useless. You can use hemp oil for almost all types of foods, but you cannot use it for frying. The boiling point of hemp oil is approximately 212-degree Fahrenheit. When processed in higher temperature, its polyunsaturated fatty acids transform into peroxides.

Under lower temperature exposure, the oil will be less destroyed. In other words, you can acquire the benefits of hemp oil by slow cooking which commonly uses very low temperature.

Conclusion

Hemp oil offers plenty of advantages, but it also has limitations. Every product containing this vegetable oil should attach directions of use and ingredients, so consumers can get the best benefits of it. Since it also has short life, you need to store it properly by protecting it from exposures to light and oxygen.